Digital Transformation is essential for any organization wishing to compete in today’s rapidly changing economy.
Nemertes defines digital transformation as: “The innovative use of emerging technologies to achieve measurable business value.”
Examples include taking advantage of mobile communications services to deliver new customer offerings, improve customer engagement, or improve internal workflows.
Our research
Already 75% of the more than 600 companies participating in Nemertes’ annual digital transformation research report that they have projects underway, while almost a third have created an enterprise-wide digital transformation planning function to rapidly assess new technologies for their applicability in solving current challenges, or as the basis for new feature or product offerings.
To determine what makes for a successful digital transformation strategy, we analyzed research participants to discover those who had seen measurable business value from their projects.
We then looked at the technologies that those who had higher success were using compared with those who had less success, or were unsuccessful in their efforts.
The results
One correlation in particular was clear: Successful organizations were approximately four times more likely to have adopted cloud communications services than unsuccessful organizations.
The alignment of cloud and digital transformation success is readily apparent when one considers the ability of a cloud communications provider to rapidly deliver innovative new features like messaging and APIs that enable customers to add communications services directly to their business process applications, customer facing platforms, or to new custom-built apps.
Indeed, the primary driver among our research participants for adopting cloud communications is the agility that it brings. Other primary reasons for adopting cloud communications include:
- Speed of service rollout compared to deploying an on-premises solution
- Rapid delivery of new features by cloud service providers
- The ability of cloud service providers to deliver only the features required for a specific need
The bottom line
Examples of leveraging cloud communications as part of a digital transformation strategy are far and wide:
- Establishing local phone and messaging presence in remote markets to improve customer service and reduce inbound and outbound calling costs
- Adding the ability of customers to text vendors, or for vendors to text customers to engage in two-way conversations, or to broadcast messages related to orders, marketing campaigns, or service delivery
- Replacing legacy PSTN access services with flexible SIP trunks to reduce cost and improve scale and resiliency
The bottom line is clear: IT leaders wishing to successfully lead digital transformation projects should ensure that cloud communications is an integral part of their efforts. Adopting the cloud means faster access to new capabilities, more flexibility in deployment, and the ability to easily integrate advanced communications features with business processes and applications.
About Nemertes: Nemertes is a global research-based advisory and consulting firm that analyzes the business value of emerging technologies. Since 2002, we have provided strategic recommendations based on data-driven operational and business metrics to help organizations deliver successful technology transformation to employees and customers. Simply put: Nemertes’ better data helps clients make better decisions.
